In an age of increasing cyber crime and its impact on the adolescents, the Special Police Unit for Women and Children (SPUWAC) unit of the Delhi Police in collaboration with Deloitte on Thursday launched a campaign, titled “Go to School Initiative — Protecting children on the internet”.
Talking about the campaign which was initiated from November 2, Joint Commissioner of Police, (SPUWAC) Robin Hibu said, “The initiative, which covered around 290 schools in the national Capital, is a step towards empowering the young adolescents to stay safe while accessing the world wide web and the various situations which they find themselves in.”
According to the official, out of a total of 426 cops, from the Northeastern States, who have been recently inducted in the Delhi Police, 30 officers are working under the Go to School initiative.
Talking about the initiative, Varsha Sharma, DCP, said a team of three police officials led by a Sub-Inspector from the Northeastern State, a Head Constable and Constable visit a group of schools each day where they interact with the students from Class VI to Class XII and talk about the dos and don’ts of using the internet. “We even gave tips on how to create a foolproof password, how to avoid cyber bully and how to use privacy settings while uploading pictures of social networking to avoid misuse.”
These lectures were of 45 minutes duration and to ensure that maximum students attended the sessions, we made use of a combination of audio-visual. Moreover, to ensure that students can relate to the situations explained in these lectures, we even used case studies through which the students understood the vices and common problems of the internet much better.
These teams are provided training in oratory skills so they can easily get along with the students. In a month long initiative starting from November 2, around 290 schools in which 1,83,469 girls/boys have been sensitised. Apart from the 10 teams, experts from Deloite too came and gave lectures on how to access the internet.
The DCP said apart from a series of audio visual presentations which they gave to the students, the unit distributed Self Defence Manual for girls to all the students.
Joint CP Hibu said, “In the manual, we have shared 22 different kinds of situations where girls face physical harassment. Right from being touched inappropriately while using the public transport, we have listed out simple yet effective self defence techniques which can be used to deal with such people.”